


Sleep Habits

by AgentStannerShipper



Series: Fictober 2019 [26]
Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Seduction, Sort Of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2019-11-09
Packaged: 2021-01-25 23:04:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21364135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentStannerShipper/pseuds/AgentStannerShipper
Summary: Data and Tasha share a bed.
Relationships: Data/Tasha Yar
Series: Fictober 2019 [26]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1540126
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31





	Sleep Habits

**Author's Note:**

> For fictober day twenty-six: “You keep me warm.”

“I’m going to bed now.”

Data looked up from his console. Tasha was indeed dressed for bed, in the sleep clothes they both preferred on her. Tasha liked the way the blue silk looked and felt against her skin. She’d told him once that it made her feel comfortable and sexy at the same time. Data liked them because Tasha liked them, but also because the color of the fabric enhanced the blue of her eyes, and the drape enhanced the curves of her body. He was not sure if this meant they appreciated the garments for the same reason – comfort and beauty – but he had never dwelled on it before. They both liked it. That was explanation enough.

Tasha was leaning against the open arch that separated the two rooms. She had her lower lip between her teeth, her eyebrows raised, and her chin tilted down just slightly. Data could categorize the look as ‘beckoning.’

He cocked his head. “Would you like me to join you?”

She nodded and held out her hands. Data stood, circling the console, and took them, allowing himself to be led into the bedroom they shared. As Tasha dropped his hands, lowering herself to sit on the edge of the bed, propped back on her hands to watch him, Data fetched his own sleeping clothes from a drawer. Before they had started spending the night together, Data had not bothered to change out of his uniform even in sleep. However, after observing Tasha perform the ritual several times, Data had adopted it as well. He did not believe it had any impact on the quality of his sleep cycles, other than perhaps an emphasized sensation of human behavior, but he had noted that Tasha was considerably more tactile in bed when he changed clothes. His nightwear was blue as well, although a darker shade and a different cut from Tasha’s. He had not intended to get a matching set, but Tasha had teased him about it anyway.

He was aware of her watching him as he changed, stripping off his uniform and folding it neatly, leaving much of his bioplast skin bare at a time. Her eyes had darkened, the pupil expanding, and she had folded on leg across the other, her tongue darting out occasionally to wet her lower lip. He turned to her, nude from the waist up, and echoed a sentiment she had expressed more than once when she had caught him studying her. “Enjoying the show?”

She laughed and stood, unfolding herself from the bed and wrapping her arms around his neck. “Very much,” she said, so close that her breath puffed across Data’s lips. She pressed a kiss there, then leaned back, hooking her fingers in the waistband of his remaining garments. “Are you going to finish?”

“I did not intend this as a seduction,” he informed her, but finished stripping anyway. It had taken some reworking of his modesty program to allow for this; his sexuality program seemed to disable his aversion to being naked in front of others, but when it was off, even changing in front of Tasha had felt…not embarrassing, Data wasn’t capable of that. But he had not wanted to do it, for some reason which he could not describe.

Tasha traced her fingers down his chest and over his hips. “Who said I was seduced?”

“You are showing signs of arousal.”

“Can’t I appreciate my partner’s body without it being about sex?” Tasha grinned, tapping his chest and then turning away, passing him his sleep clothes. “Come on. It’s been a long day.”

She returned to the bed, shoving back the covers and crawling onto her side as Data dressed, his motions practiced and efficient, allowing him to watch her as he did so. “Then you do not intend for us to have sex tonight?” he asked.

“And they say romance is dead.” Tasha snorted, but she was still smiling.

Data frowned. Fully dressed, he took his place on the side of the bed that had been designated his, although he had found the boundaries to be somewhat flexible in that regard. He studied Tasha’s face. “I assume in this instance that you are being sarcastic, and that you are implying that my statement decoupled sexual activity from its standard connotations of affection.”

“Something like that.” Tasha bridged the space between them to give Data another kiss. “Don’t worry. You’re plenty romantic.”

“I am doing my best.”

Tasha pulled him closer, nudging him until he was on his other side, and she was draped over him. Jetpacking, he had heard it called once, an ancient and obscure term to describe this pose, the smaller partner spooning the larger one. Data preferred to be in Tasha’s arms. He knew he was not supposed to have a preference, as an android, but it gave him pleasure to be held.

“You don’t need to be anything you’re not with me,” Tasha murmured in his ear, not for the first time. “You keep me warm. You make me happy. That’s enough.”

By definition, Data could not feel happy, and while he did technically register temperature changes, they did not provide the same kind of comfort for him that they did for organic beings. But Data shared the sentiment all the same.


End file.
